Untitled

Abstract

Studies on head injury-induced pituitary dysfunction are limited in number and conflicting results have been reported. To further clarify this issue, 29 consecutive patients (24 males), with severe (n = 21) or moderate (n = 8) head trauma, having a mean age of 37 ± 17 years were investigated in the immediate post-trauma period. All patients required mechanical ventilatory support for 8-55 days and were enrolled in the study within a few days before ICU discharge. Basal hormonal assessment included measurement of cortisol, corticotropin, free thyroxine (fT4), thyrotropin (TSH), testosterone (T) in men, estradiol (E2) in women, prolactin (PRL), and growth hormone (GH). Cortisol and GH levels were measured also after stimulation with 100 µg human corticotropin releasing hormone (hCRH) and 100 µg growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH), respectively. Cortisol hyporesponsiveness was considered when peak cortisol concentration was less than 20 µg/dl following hCRH. TSH deficiency was diagnosed when a subnormal serum fT4 level was associated with a normal or low TSH. Hypogonadism was considered when T (males) or E2 (women) were below the local reference ranges, in the presence of normal PRL levels. Severe or partial GH deficiencies were defined as a peak GH below 3 µg/l or between 3 and 5 µg/l, respectively, after stimulation with GHRH. Twenty-one subnormal responses were found in 15 of the 29 patients (52%) tested; seven (24%) had hypogonadism, seven (24%) had cortisol hyporesponsiveness, five (17%) had hypothyroidism, and two patients (7%) had partial GH deficiency. These preliminary results suggest that a certain degree of hypopituitarism occurs in more than 50% of patients with moderate or severe head injury in the immediate post-trauma period, with cortisol hyporesponsiveness and hypogonadism being most common. Further studies are required to elucidate the pathogenesis of these abnormalities and to investigate whether they affect long-term morbidity. P2 Cortisol reserve in head trauma victims: evaluation with the low-dose (1 µ µg) corticotropin (ACTH) stimulation test

Analysis of O‐glycosylation site occupancy in bovine κ‐casein glycoforms separated by two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis

“…O-glycosylation is a stepwise procedure that commences with addition of GalNAc to serine or threonine residues catalyzed by UDP-GalNAc:polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase (GalNAcT) in the golgi and has been the subject of a number of recent reviews [38][39][40][41]. At least 12 mammalian GalNAcT enzymes have been cloned and functionally expressed and as many as 24 GalNAcT genes have been inferred from analysis of the human genome [41].…”

Screening for N‐glycosylated proteins by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

“…The most common are phosphorylation and glycosylation. More than 30% of proteins are believed to be phosphorylated [4], and more than half of all proteins are believed to be glycosylated [5]. Significant advances have been made in large-scale characterization of phosphoproteins [6] by enriching for phosphopeptides via an immobilized metalaffinity chromatography column.…”

Matrix metalloproteinases and their endogenous inhibitors in neuronal physiology of the adult brain

“…1), as indicated by collective evidence obtained in various cell types and tissues. There are a number of gene regulatory sequences driving the MMP-9 expression, with AP-1 and NF-jB being the most prominent [5]. Once produced, the MMP-9 mRNA is subjected to regulation at its stability level by nitric oxide (NO) [6]; as well it can apparently be translocated in neurons towards activated dendrites [7].…”